Season Nine of Hell’s Kitchen kicked off tonight with James and the new contestants, whose egos were already flying – oh boy, this is going to be a fun season! Gordon Ramsay had a surprise for the contestants as he brought them in, had their hair/makeup done and sent them on stage, where they were expected a crowd of fans. When they went on stage, there was only one person in the audience, Gordon Ramsay! While the chefs thought they were already stars, Gordon took some time to bring the them back down to reality and explained that the winner will win the head chef position at BLT Steak in New York City. Then the contestants were sent on their merry way to cook their signature dishes.

With 45 minutes to get their signature dishes down, we quickly met some of the new chefs – you can get to know them here or go to Hell’s Kitchen to read more about them. When their signature dishes were complete, the men were put head to head against the ladies right off the bat. In the first battle it was Carrie, who served Gordon Ramsay mashed potatoes that contained sugar. Clearly they got spit out, but her contender Will impressed and gave the men their first point of the evening.

The next pair both impressed and gained a point, but then Gordon was disgusted by a contestant who tried to serve him a canned pineapple, which ended up in a girl’s win. Then we met 44-year-old Steven who cooked Gordon some scallops that Gordon called “toenails” and refused to try them. After quite a few good dishes, the men and women were neck in neck until the last two. Jason, a line cook was confident that his regular old tacos would impress Chef Ramsay and they did giving the men the win and a date with last season’s winner, Nona at LA Market. It was great to see Nona again and the men absorbed all the advice that the reigning champ had to dish out, while the ladies scrubbed and scrubbed.

Just as the teams start dinner service, Jason starts to feel ill. The medics arrive since he is burning up and breathing heavy and take him to the hospital. Gordon Ramsay then informs the rest of the contestants that Jason will be in the hospital for a few days and will not be returning to Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service continues in disaster mode as neither team seems to be able to get a grip and get good service going, until Will steps up to the plate on the blue team. Krupa, who had a bad start was finally able to get a good risotto made, but she starts celebrating too soon leaving Chef Ramsay to put her in her place.

Both kitchens seem to come to a standstill halfway through, leaving the dinners starving – I am surprised no one walked out! Jonathon, who killed his chicken with the canned pineapple earlier, impressed when he was able to serve a perfect beef wellington – too bad the garnish was not ready. The women seemed to be getting catty already, as Elisa took over Carrie’s fish station in an effort to prove that she was the better cook, but it ended her in a “time out”. Due to the lack of service, James informs the kitchen and an irate Chef Ramsay that the customers are walking out in disgust.

After shutting down service, Gordon confronted the teams. The women once again started to get into a catfight as Carrie and Elise began to play the blame game. The blue team handled it a bit better, but they were the losing team tonight as they could not get a single entree out. The men then had to go choose who would be put up for elimination and then the drama started for them. After battling it out, the blue team chose to nominate Steven and Monterray, but Gordon Ramsay thought that Chino belonged in that group. After pleading their cases, Gordon Ramsay chose to send Steven packing despite the fact that he thought all three of them sucked.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow at 8 pm EST for another brand new episode on Fox!